Niner Noise
FanSided

San Francisco 49ers: Ranking the top 10 teams in franchise history

By Robert Morrison

JAN 1990: THE VINCE LOMBARDI TROPHY PRIOR TO THE SAN FRANCISCO 49ERS 55-10 SUPER BOWL XXIV VICTORY OVER THE DENVER BRONCOS. MANDATORY CREDIT: RICK STEWART/ALLSPORT
JAN 1990: THE VINCE LOMBARDI TROPHY PRIOR TO THE SAN FRANCISCO 49ERS 55-10 SUPER BOWL XXIV VICTORY OVER THE DENVER BRONCOS. MANDATORY CREDIT: RICK STEWART/ALLSPORT /
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Steve Young #5, Quarterback for the San Francisco 49ers (Photo by Doug Pensinger/Allsport/Getty Images)
Steve Young #5, Quarterback for the San Francisco 49ers (Photo by Doug Pensinger/Allsport/Getty Images) /

No. 2: 1994 49ers

Record: 13-3, won Super Bowl XXIX

13 points for wins

5 points for division title

5 points for divisional-round win

10 points for NFC Championship game win

15 points for SB win

15 points for top 5 offense

5 points for No. 1 offense

10 points for top 10 defense

5 points for Steven Young MVP

5 points for Deion Sanders DPOY

2 points for Steve Young leading league in passing TDs

2 points for Jerry Rice leading league in receiving yards

Total: 92

The 1994 San Francisco 49ers were one of the most dominant teams in NFL history.

Although they only finished the regular season with 13 wins (the last game against the Vikings only featured the starters for a half, as they had the division and No. 1 seed in the NFC in hand), they scored 505 points, first in the league and most in franchise history.

On top of that, the defense gave up the sixth-fewest points (18.5 ppg) and eighth fewest yards (302.4 YPG), while forcing 46 turnovers and scoring five touchdowns.

Having been dismissed from the playoffs by the Cowboys two years in a row, the 49ers loaded up on the defensive side of the ball in the offseason, adding linebacker Ken Norton, Jr. and cornerback Deion Sanders via free agency, and drafting defensive tackle Bryant Young and linebacker Lee Woodall in the 1994 NFL Draft to a group which already included safety Merton Hanks, cornerback Eric Davis and defensive tackle Dana Stubblefield.

After a 3-1 start, the team was destroyed by the Philadelphia Eagles 40-8 in Week 5, which galvanized the squad and jump-started a 10-game winning streak that ended with the aforementioned Week 17 game.

The 49ers then ran ramshackle on the playoffs, crushing the Bears 44-15 in the divisional round, handling the Cowboys (and ending the losing streak) 38-28 in the NFC Championship game, before smashing the San Diego Chargers 49-26 in Super Bowl XXIX, in a game that wasn’t even as close as the final score indicated.

Steve Young wasn’t great in either of the first two playoff games, but he made up for it in the Super Bowl, winning MVP honors (like he did for the regular season), finishing 24 of 36 for 325 yards and six touchdowns, along with five carries for 49 yards.

While the team was great in many of the same ways the 1984 team was, Young’s MVP, Sanders’ Defensive Player of the Year, and Young leading the NFL passing touchdowns, while Jerry Rice led the league in receiving yards, set this illustrious group above almost every team in 49ers’ history.

Save for one.